What is the Knit supporter badge?

Where it shows

The badge sits on the edge of your picture in your friends' chat lists and contacts, at the top of your chats with them, on your profile and in the member lists of groups you share. Your profile also shows a Supporter label, and tapping either one opens a short note about the badge.

Beside your messages, on call screens and in notifications, your picture shows without it.

Turning it on

Turn on Show my supporter badge on your profile screen. It's off until you do. Turn it off again whenever you like: your profile stops carrying the badge, and each phone that receives the new profile stops showing it.

Who sees it

The badge travels inside your sealed profile, which goes to everyone your phone has a private chat set up with. Every one of them receives the same profile, so the badge shows for all of them or for none.

How phones check it

A phone checks three things before it draws the badge, and it needs no connection to do it. The signature has to be Knit Anywhere's, verified against keys built into the app. The badge has to be current, and it has to belong to the profile it arrived in. So a modified app can't fake one, and a badge copied onto another profile shows for nobody.

What Knit Anywhere learns

To receive a badge, your phone sends Knit Anywhere a one-way code made from your Knit identity and random bytes. Knit Anywhere signs the code without seeing the identity, so it can't tell which Knit profile shows its badge.

What it says

It's a mark on your picture and a label on your profile, and it says you support Knit. It doesn't say how, and it has no price or link.

Where it stops

• It lapses on its own a while after Knit Anywhere ends, even on a phone that stays offline.
• Someone you no longer chat with keeps seeing it until it lapses, unless a newer profile of yours reaches them first.
• Your profile isn't padded to one size yet, so someone carrying it between phones may be able to tell from its size that it includes a badge, though not open it.